Pascual Toso Winery's 125th Anniversary Tasting

Pascual Toso is an winery located in the popular Mendoza region of Argentina. Despite being considered a new world winery, it's roots are anything but. In the mid-1880's Pascual Toso left his families winemaking business in Italy to start his own journey in Mendoza. He quickly realized the wine making opportunity in Argentina and began making wine from his estate, Las Barracas, in 1890. Today, Pascual Toso is one of Argentina's largest family owned wineries.

This year, Pascual Toso is celebrating its 125th anniversary which for any new world winery, especially in South America, is rather amazing. To celebrate, Pascual Toso held an intimate wine tasting at the prestigious The National Club in Toronto where winemaker Felipe Stahlschmidt expertly guided the tasting with his technical knowledge of winemaking.

Our first five wines are aged in new barrels, showcasing the brightness of younger wines. Meanwhile, the second five wines are all reserve wines aged in old barrels giving the wine a more mature, earthy, rounded aroma and profile. Argentina's Malbec wines are well known and for good reason, they're very good inexpensive wines. The surprise of the day however were Pascual Toso's Cabernet Sauvignon varietal. When we think of new world Cabernet Sauvignon we typically think of California wines however Pascual Toso's making a great case to change your mind. At about half the price of your average California bottle, Pascual Toso's Cabernet Sauvignon is a very respectable fruit forward, balanced wine. Unfortunately, we are going to have to wait as it is currently not available in Ontario.

Pascual Toso typically imports about 600-800 cases of reserve wine that are only distributed to the top eleven LCBO stores in Ontario which are typically sold out within just a few weeks. Restaurants, wine bars and wine collectors typically snatch them up as soon as they hit the market. However, Pascual Toso does have a very good Malbec available year round.

To end the tasting, Pascual Toso had one last surprise for us. To commemorate their 125th anniversary, Felipe bottled exactly 125 double magnum bottles from their 2014 vintage of their best barrels of Malbec and Cabernet Sauvignon. Despite such limited quantity, we shared a glass over a deliciously prepared, Argentine inspired meal by executive chef James Stewart of The National Club.